Eagles top Chiefs

A 13-0 run by Schoolcraft to close the second quarter turned the momentum around and propelled the Eagles to a 73-44 win over White Pigeon in the Class C regional finals at Constantine Wednesday.

"We didn't want to play offensively 90 miles per hour," Chiefs coach Tony Cholometes said. "We wanted to slow it down a little bit and play at our pace. Give them kudos, they created that situation and that led to the outcome of the game."

The score went from a 22-14 White Pigeon lead with 4:48 to go before halftime to a Schoolcraft 27-22 edge at the break.

The Eagles advance to Tuesday's state quarterfinal at Bangor taking on Monroe St. Mary Catholic Central. The Falcons topped Clinton, 51-40, on Wednesday.

"That's a great basketball team, they've been here a number of times," Cholometes said of the Eagles. "They've been at the next level a number of times. We got beat by a better team tonight."

Early on, the Chiefs were able to take advantage on the inside. Matt Crowl scored on a layup to opening the scoring. After Schoolcraft's Luke Ryskamp hit a 3-pointer, Crowl hit another layup and Robbie Gibson scored off a pass from Mitchell Moore, who had assists on the Chiefs first three buckets.

Moments later, Crowl had an offensive putback for a 8-3 lead.

"I thought the first 12 minutes we were finishing our shots," Cholometes said. "We were actually attacking the bucket and getting the ball in where we wanted. He called a couple of timeouts and made some adjustments, which were good adjustments."

The Eagles rallied to close the gap to 14-12 after one quarter. White Pigeon responded with a 8-2 run capped by a Crowl rebound basket for the 22-14 lead.

"Our kids came out and played hard for 32 minutes," Cholometes said. "For the first 12, they played exceptional. But in this stage of the game, you have to play at that level for 32 minutes."

Then Schoolcraft's press took over.

"It did slip away from us a little bit," Cholometes said. "They put on some pressure. They're just a tad bit deeper than us on their bench and that aided them in the second quarter."

White Pigeon trailed 27-22 heading into the third quarter and closed the gap as Crowl hit a triple to opening the scoring.

It stayed close until Ryskamp started to take over near the midpoint of the period. The Eagles led 32-29 and the senior scored 11 of his teams' points during a 15-0 run that opened the game up.

"This was probably his best game of the tournament, he stepped it up to another level," Cholometes said of the all-state candidate, who finished with 33 points.

Schoolcraft led 52-34 after three quarters.

"We didn't make some free throws, we missed some opportune buckets down low, we didn't finish a couple of times," Cholometes said. "They finished on most of their shots and that aided them considerably."

The Eagles were also aided by getting to the foul line. They were 20-for-27, while the Chiefs went 1-for-5.

Despite the loss, Cholometes was happy that his team got to play a few extra weeks.

"I'm very, very proud of this group," he said. "People didn't think we'd get here. I don't think they thought we would get out of our first game of the districts after we got beat by (Cassopolis) by 30 early in the season."

"We had some great seniors this year in Robbie Gibson, Branson Salyer, Matt Crowl and Mitch Boatman, who came in and gave it their all," Cholometes said. "They played the role they had to play and I couldn't be more proud of our seniors."